Economists point to differences between the wild days of the dot-com boom and the full-throttled tech renaissance going on today in Silicon Valley, as evidenced by this newspaper's SV150 survey of the region's biggest companies by revenue.

Led by the most successful company in the history of American commerce, Silicon Valley technology firms have become increasingly attuned to the demands of Wall Street, churning out profits at a record pace and sending a fire hose of cash back to investors.

Over the nearly three decade history of the SV150, this newspaper's annual report card on the Silicon Valley tech industry, no single company has better reflected the trends buffeting the other companies on the list than Hewlett-Packard.